Academic advancement programs (especially those branded as “gifted and talented”) are often at the center of controversy about equity in education. This has sometimes led to gifted programs being eliminated or substantially altered—such as the recent closure of the highly capable cohort program in Seattle. These headlines raise the perennial question of what school parents really want when it comes to gifted education.
In partnership with Morning Consult, EdChoice surveyed a nationally representative sample of American adults eighteen and older (N = 2,252) from June 5–7, 2024. With additional sampling, we obtained responses from 1,294 parents of children currently in K–12 education.
In this month’s poll, we asked parents new questions to learn about their perspectives on gifted education. After all, summertime is when parents make crucial decisions about the upcoming school year, including where to send their kids to school in the fall. For a lot of families, that means considering whether their current school offers academic advancement or “gifted” classes. A lack of educational options might lead them to make the difficult decision to switch schools.
This June, nearly two-thirds of all school parents (63 percent) say that it’s very or extremely important for their child’s school to offer advanced academic classes. Private school parents place even more importance on gifted education being offered, with 77 percent saying it’s at least very important. It’s clear that school parents want class options that suit their children’s academic needs.
Despite recent challenges to gifted education, school parents still want academic advancement options to be available. The majority of school parents (58 percent) disagree that schools should eliminate advanced classes in order to mix students together in the same classes. Only 9 percent of school parents strongly believe that schools should be removing advanced classes to make sure students are in the same classroom.
Perhaps most strikingly, one-third of school parents (33 percent) say they would be extremely or very likely to move their child to a different school if their current school eliminated academically advanced classes. Nearly half of private school parents (47 percent) said the same. Among parents who have switched their child’s school, 28 percent say that the change in schools was needed because their child’s academic needs were not being met at their former school. That’s approximately level with the one-third (33 percent) of parents who say they would be likely to change schools if gifted classes were eliminated—showing us that school parents are ready to back up their educational preferences by taking action.
The importance of academic advancement options to school parents shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering that a lot of families have a personal stake in gifted education. In this month’s poll, 43 percent of parents say they have at least one kid taking a gifted, advanced, or honors class at school. This proportion is higher among parents of high school (54 percent) and private school (58 percent) students. According to parents of “gifted” kids, honors classes are the most common type of academic advancement, with 46 percent of gifted students enrolled in an honors class. Gifted/advanced academic programs are the next most common option at 34 percent. Notably, 27 percent of these parents said their kids take an Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) class—up from 15 percent in November 2023.
Check out the full report, and read more about what school parents have to say about gifted education.
Editor’s note: This was first published by EdChoice.
